I have been having such a great time with my papercraft designs that I had taken a break on other projects such as my graphics for a possible GameMaker game. What exactly this game could be has yet to be determined but as an exercise in “pixellating” a real-life location, I am beginning to see some real success.

I am especially proud of the linoleum in the kitchen. Ezra the cat is always demanding to be fed.

Cheeseburger the cat likes to follow me around the trailer and beg to be picked up.

The final area I worked on, is the hallway, studio and bathroom areas. More clutter, erm details will be added to the studio shelves at some point.

The outlines for these rooms were a challenge. A utility closet was initially included in the design but in order to best resolve the most interesting items across all the rooms it was removed. And yes, Faux really has a goofy skeleton hanging on her studio door.

Very excited to see continued progress on this project. I promise colour and details will follow but I must first outline the kitchen and the bedroom. I force myself to stay at this limited level of detail in order to remain flexible in the overall design. Also, it has been said, that you can't help but get better as you practice your pixelwork. By the time I have completed outlining, I am hoping I will have gained enough skill to fill in the gaps.

The trailer is beginning to take shape!

Here is a sample of the in-game door functionality. Doors allow for "privacy".

The final two rooms are smaller than the "first two" but are both full of interesting details so I will avoid the impulse to start rushing. This is a labour of love!

Trying to distinguish feminine from masculine in 8-bits is a challenge.

Faux's trailer is the world map. The limitations of the NES will ultimately determine the level of detail I am able to give to this world.

NES 8-bit game design has always been on the bucket list. I am hoping NESmaker will be the key to giving it a go. Getting familiar with a different graphics mode is always exciting to me, and the opportunity to tell a meaningful story with an old Nintendo makes the whole prospect that much more attractive.

I grew up with a Commodore. One of my favorite things to do was draw pictures of my house using the PETSCII characters on the keyboard. Back in the day there was no way to easily save this drawings so the image above is a modern take using the very cool PLAYSCII editor.

I recently got an Arduboy and I think it's a pretty fantastic little device. Inspired by the very low resolution display (128px x 64px) I decided to do a few mock-ups. My Jumpman port looks doable if only to punish the gamer's eyes. I LOVED Jumpman on the C64, Atari 8-bit, and Colecovison.

It was a lot of had work but I have finally completed the Retro Challenger for 2016. It was a fun experience as always. Perhaps one day I will team up with a programmer and Super Mario will find another home on the Commodore.

But that'll be for another Challenge. Thanks a million for all the support!

I felt Canadian's in the 80's were quick to abandon old computer tech in favour of game consoles and eventually PCs. I was playing with my Commodore 64 for years after it had fallen out of favor. The 16-bit computer era practically passed us by. There is a lot of beauty wrapped up in limitation so I believe I will continue to appreciate what 8-bit and 16-bit system do.

I remember playing Super Mario Bros 3 for the first time. I rented it from out Canadian Tire (CT rented out games in our small town). I remember it like it was yesterday. My younger sister and I sat in front of our television and were transfixed as we played through the whole experience. I always had similar times with the Commodore so it only seems fitting to pay tribute to two of my favourite systems.

The NES uses 2x2 tiles (16x16px) to define its world whereas my Commodore version uses 3x2 tiles (12x16px). This can make certain objects, like the rotating hammer especially challenging and interesting to translate.